I came up with this army because I wanted to try something a little different than the traditional imperial army lists that get posted here quite a bit and remove some of the empires most useful elements, namingly tanks and infantry operating with cheetah support and make use of the Imperial Mecha, the two units that very rarely show up in Imperial decks. It hasn't been extensively playtested yet but hopefully it works well.

The Rocky Mountains have become an important front for the Imperial forces. Due to a high concentration of resources alone they are a critical strategic location. They also serve as a key stronghold for the Machine Empire and border the pacific ocean, an important source of biological resources for the Xenos. Traditional armies have a difficult time operating in the mountains, the unstable geology and extreme terrain make armoured forces virtually useless and supply lines are extremely difficult to maintain over the narrow mountain passes. The mountain division makes extensive use of mecha and power armour, two unit types that are almost ideally suited to difficult terrain.

To ensure that the Division can best exploit the abundant resources it also has a well established scientific team:1x Hanibal Zarkov1x Milton Jrick

Complete with State of the art facilities1x Imperial Research Lab1x Imperial War College1x Industrial Complex1x Intelligence Center

The Base Defense is led by one of the empires finest tacticians1x Erik Mai4x Imperial Guard

And their offensive punch is led by:1x Ulysses Starke2x Vengeance4x Vindicatorwith 1x Carter Powell acting in support1x Mobile Field Post

They also have a specially modified JSF II designed for VTOL operations1x JSF II1x Crow

Due to the difficult terrain they rely on a rapid reaction force of Imperial Marines to support vulnerable outposts.1x Burwell Puller 4x Imperial Marines

The eyes and ears of the force are a critical element but they are forced to rely on infantry predominantly due to the inability of the the traditional Striker equipped recon units to reliably navigate the terrain.1x Adam Wraith 1x Sigmund Gordon1x Valentine Kusanagi2x Imperial Rangers2x Imperial Commandos1x FAC

In the event that the Mobile Field Post is destroyed the Mountain division also has the resources to create a single supply depot so they can better project their forces.1x Firebase

The recon war with this deck is fascinating. With both scout heroes, but only two units with the recon ability you really need to be proactive with your recon elements. I found that equipping the rangers with a Shiva while the commandos use lasers lets them pack quite a punch.

I chose the Imperial Fortress, because it better looked the part.For Tiles I went: Big Dig, Shanty Town (representing the civvies cowering in the relative safety of the base / the military families etc. living close to the base), Mountain Tile and Rocky Desert (Hey, I only had one point left, and it had the word "rock" in it).

I'm expecting it to be a bit dull at the start, because of the excess of big ticket units, but we'll see how it goes. I also, since the description describes it as a new frontline in the battle, boldy placed my tiles forward, in the direction of a possible base location of the enemy.

The Gods of Random Map Generation have been kind enough to put a huge bunch of crags, hills and mountains in my south-eastern rear, to add to the realism.

First 10 turns went well, but I got a call, and gotta meet some friends for coffee.

My starting position is pretty cool (see maps below). I've got The Rift quite nearby, also the Raider Fortress to the Southeast and the crashed factory pod, I think, to the north-east.

My hand was pretty crap, only mechs and pba's. I discarded a few to draw Carter Powell as my general in command. He found a supply cache, and set up a recruitment center in the shanty town, materials team at the home base.

I didn't get enough initiative for a big Vengeance Mecha, so decided to splurge on a Vindicator and go for the rift. Before Tip of the Spear, that would've been cakewalk, but now I decided to retreat and get reinforcement, after I got nearly creamed by a fanatical attack in the first turn and saw the infanterists easily eroding my defense. Luckily Powell is a mechanic, so the 3 point damage was easily fixed. With the support of a Guard unit it was game over for the Sacred Cult of the Rift.

At the home front, I also got Mugde installed, and a ranger unit as defense. After building a Tech Team, I sent Powell forward to perhaps get an early kill on whoever is there (probably Xenos, as they airraided me and I shot down one of their interceptors, hah!)

11-19So much for a fast walkover. I lost my JSF due to unlucky dice. Then Carter and his Vindicator/Marine army stumbled upon the monstrosity who creamed the Vindicator. So I tactically retreated back to the rift. I put some Rangers around for recon. Finally won initiative and could put in the Vengeance (as well as Imperial Guards).

For some reason, the game indicated that the place was out of supply. Now, I didn't worry too much about that, since he had crap-all there, so I tried using my Crow helicopters to kill his Psykers, sadly I got the Drones every time. I decided to siege anyway

Back at the base, I got Starke and West, added some Commando protection to Mai at the rift. When suddenly, the Xenos move back all their guys. Turns out the place was in supply after all, simply some army blocking the way. Time for the Battle Royale.Easily dispatched the garrison of Psykers, Gluttons and an egg.Fought harshly with the monstrosity (killed my marines, but not after they damaged it so much the Vengeance could take it out).Killed a silly gangrel.Made mincemeat out of a consort.

Which meant Xenopod base was won, at turn 20.

From here on, the rest of the game was standard fare. I could expand my resource collectors in piece, tech up. Capture the surrounding bases with Burwell Puller.

Only snag I came up was a near wipe-out of my forces at the mutant base (turn 30)I lost two marines, managed to kill the Gargantua, and *bailed*.

I came right back at him with Godsoldiers. Pounded him into submission with Burwell Pulker, 1 squad of tricked-out marines, fully tricked out Imperial Guard, Rangers with a TacNuke, and 2 Godsoldiers. Managed to kill him and the Fist at about the same time (40). (Assasinated the Fist somewhere in the meantime, he was around there, too)

Now it was just a matter of marching this Stack of Doom towards the Machine base. He did try some hanky-panky at the former Xenopod base, but Carter Powell's old force easily repelled him, and more importantly, that didn't save his HQ.

Opinion on the Deck:Although one game (with such a superb starting position) is not much to opine upon, the deck does exactly what you expect. It's slow to start, but once you have resources, you build Ye Olde Uberstack and pound, pound, pound.

I was real lucky with spotting the rift, I think, because I had to discard quite a few cards, before even getting to recon-type units. I don't know how the heck I'd solve that. It was fun playing with Vindicator Mecha's and Imperial Guard units for a change.

I've finally given this deck a go. It's been a lot of fun and the map has really decided to fit the theme, tons of mountainous terrain with long snaky valleys between. 275/15, huge, rare/rare, cults (we got Rapture), 3 enemies.

The lack of proper recon in the deck is just crazy! I say that in a good way. What recon it has is mostly all dead (FAC? Meet Xeno podship. Rangers? Both dead. Siggy? Dead. Valentine? Hunted down like a dog. Adam Wraith? Captured. Commando 1? Went toe-to-toe with a Mauler after it stumbled into an Uberstack.) and I've even lost some of my mainline battle units (1 each of Marines, Vindicator and Imperial Guard). I managed to take the Xeno base but then without recon was forced to literally walk my main army (accompanied by the Mobile Field Base) across the center of the map actually using the Crow to scout to either side as I desperately searched for the Rapture HQ. That was a first for me. In the assault on the Rapture HQ I lost a Vindicator to their defense emplacements while I chewed through the minions with my laser equipped PBAs and Vengences. Then the Guard unit sacrificed itself to destroy the last automated defense to save the badly shot up Marines. There was no time to equip the troops with more TacNukes after taking the Xeno base, there was just no time!

Now I'm trying to tool up before going out to look for the Mutant and Machine HQs. Buller and 2 Marines already utterly destroyed 1 Mutant stack that sieged my HQ and 1 Machine stack that sieged the ex-Xeno HQ. Reequipping those guys with nukes and tactics after every battle is slowing down plans to fully upgrade Assault 1 and go a hunting.

Also, it's really funny to play a deck and get NO BENEFIT from the Tip of the Spear! Training? Combined arms? Who the hell needs it! So add that to your list of ways to give the AI a boost.

So I plowed my way over and crushed the Mutants. By then I was starting God Soldier production but rather than use them for my stack I used them as garrisons. I moved the stack towards where the Machines had to be and found them. Totally surrounded by minefields. What to do? First I created a base right at the edge of my supply but the enemy minefields blocked that support into the Machine HQ. Well, when you have access to God Soldiers everything begins to look like a nail. I created 3 armies, Mine Clearance 1 through 3, each with a single God Soldier in it, and just moved them in and out of the nearest minefield. The Machines responded with airstrikes, which the GS's shrugged off as annoyances and even an attack by a solitary Styx. Styx vs God Soldier is kind of funny but in the end the Styx had to leg it. When the minefield collapsed I simply moved my original stack in and crushed them for final victory.